Master of Science in Landscape Design

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Browsing Master of Science in Landscape Design by Subject "CITY PLANNING"

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    item: Thesis-Full-text
    Urban green spaces : with reference to the city of Colombo
    Pilapitiya, PSP; Balasuriya, S
    Historical evidences show that green spaces were a part of every city in human civilisation whether it is in Mesopotamia, Indus valley or in the later developments in Europe. Sri Lanka also had a very prominent affiliation with green spaces in its cities in the early periods. • When Colombo became the capital of Sri Lanka under foreign rulers the city adapted many characteristics of those countries. The first prominent plan for the development of the city was brought forward by Sir Patrick Geddes. Later on there have been a series of proposals, the newest one being the Public Outdoor Recreation Spaces (PORS)Plan for Colombo, which goes into details of a nesting concept having a hierarchy of parks. The prevailing legal framework is also not effective as it does not directly address the issues in protecting the existing green spaces. With the pressures of population increase, urbanisation and industrialization several undesirable outcomes such as fragmentation of land, environmental pollution, urban microclimatic effects etc have surfaced. There are a number of green spaces in the city of Colombo, some being maintained well and some being neglected to the point of being lost as a green space. Urban green spaces have a number of benefits viz. ecological, environmental and social. Colombo is progressing slowly towards protecting and enhancing its green spaces. There are some examples positive and negative throughout the world that we can consider as a base in developing our own green space network. We have to speed up our work towards achieving a desirable amount of green spaces in the cities since the forces that destruct and destroy them are more powerful and have more speed in making even the available spaces dwindle during a little time span. As Martin Luther (1483-1546)expressed, "For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold or silver."
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    item: Thesis-Abstract
    Wetlands in Colombo : a threatened landscape : destruction of wetlands in Colombi city and its periphery by dominating cityscape over natural landscape
    Dharmawardena, MSN
    "... Oh! Great king the land belongs to people and all living beings thou art only the guardian of it the birds of the air, and the beasts have as equal right to live and move about in any part of the land as thou. The land belongs to people and all living beings. Thou art only the guardian of it......" -Mahawamsa – This was the Buddhist teaching and advice to the King or the trusteeship of the earth resources. This implies a great meaning in the sense of protection of environment, even today, its' importance is still being effective. The nature cares for all creatures, not only the human beings; all animals, birds, insects, reptiles, fish .... not only fauna, even for flora. Every creature is given its' own niche in nature without any discrimination. In return they never do any harm to destroy the nature. All these creatures, they live and obey the principles of Nature. They never emits effluents that are harm to the Nature. No any harm to its' context in order to change its' environment and characters, No any permanent structures, no excessive use of its' resources .... BUT all the harm is done to the nature ... by the human being who is considered as the brainy among all creatures that the Nature created. To fulfill personal needs and selfish lifestyle the creations of nature are being vanished by him There are a lot of incidents of such context. The one is the destruction of wetlands ..... The time for destruction is very short; their effects are irreversible, permanent bitter and harsh. Once we loss them we will miss them forever. The future generations of all beings may suffer the action of present generation of human beings...... !